kipwinger

Flotilla?

Damn I wish the Tigers were on the West Coast tonight, I hate having to switch back and fourth between games. Anybody else think Weiss would look better with speedier wingers? Datsyuk is more deliberate and has better one on one moves, so slower wingers aren't a big deal for him. But it seems like Weiss is more dangerous on the fly. Just for kicks I'd like to see... Alfie-Dats-Franzen Zetterberg-Weiss-Abby No knock on Bert though, he looks good with Z and D.

Call the fire department, she's on fire!

Haha, another drink for you.

Calling it, Bertuzzi with another PP goal...and eventually the hat trick.

Power play wrap around. Went in off a defender's stick.

I was thinking the same thing, I watched St. Louis against Chicago the other day and was amazed at how well St. Louis passed. Tape to tape, every f*cking time.

Don't do it! Word on the street is that she's a sucubus who will feed off your many essence and cause you to pitch like s*** until long after you two break up.

Gotta love Big Bert!

Perpetually injured?

Good PK work by Cleary on that one.

Yeah, he's out and Lashoff is in. Edit: You really should read the mlive article about it, Smith really makes himself look good while alternately denying he's played poorly and subtly throwing his teammates under the bus.

It drives me crazy too, but because the opportunity was not there in the first four games doesn't mean it won't come. The Tatar situation is a little bit more frustrating than Nyquist because he COULD theoretically be playing every night. But in light of the roster and cap crunch, the fact that Nyquist hasn't played makes sense. You've got to assume that sooner, rather than later, someone will be waived or traded. The problem is, if you don't give guys like Sammy, Tootoo, and eventually Eaves some playing time, nobody is going to trade for them or pick them up off waivers and if any (or all) of them pass through without getting picked up then we still don't have the cap space to bring up Nyquist. For the time being these guys need to be showcased. Then, once they've shown they have value, or once some other team is so plagued by injuries that they have no choice but to claim a guy off waivers or trade for him, Nyquist's time will come.

I don't disagree with any of that. My initial reason for comparing Cleary and Nyquist was simply to suggest that many here at LGW are ready to cut Cleary loose, in spite of his value (and particularly value for money) and give his spot to Nyquist. But if we're being objective, we have to admit to ourselves that Nyquist has hardly set the world on fire (thus far) in the NHL. Brunner produced better during his time in Detroit, so did Tatar. But we keep talking about Nyquist as if he's next in line. He isn't. He'll get his opportunity, and hopefully he'll make good on it. But we also shouldn't be so quick to throw the baby out with the bath water. Cleary still has a lot of value to this team. FYI, if you look at the lines thread made before the start of this season you'll see my ideal line combos. They are worth repeating here, to give you an idea about where I see Cleary AND Nyquist fitting into this team Z-Dats-Abby Alfie-Weiss-Franzen Nyquist-Andersson-Tatar Cleary-Emmy (Helm when ready)-Miller Bertuzzi-Eaves

Good to see Brendan Smith stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for his lackluster play. Also, is it just me or is he subtly blaming his breakdowns on Quincey when he says "the breakdowns didn't come from MY side"? Maybe I'm reading into this too much, or maybe he's the type of guy who always has an excuse.

He probably wouldn't have been paired with Lidstrom, as I cannot remember the last time a rookie was given top pairing minutes in Detroit. Chances are even if he had been on the team, he would have been given bottom pairing minutes and Lidstrom's effect on him would have been negligible. Just like it was negligible on Ericsson or Kindl or Quincey before them. You've got to remember that in 2011-2012 White was paired with Lidstrom (and looked very solid) and Kronwall and Stuart were the second pair. There's no way that Smith breaks into the top four on that team. There's a tendency to believe that pairing someone with Lidstrom or Datsyuk or whomever will significantly aide a rookie's development, and it's largely b.s. Having those guys around to cover your mistakes doesn't make you less prone to making them, it just makes mistakes less costly. The only real developmental effect that playing with Datsyuk or Zetterberg or Lidstrom comes from teaching guys what it takes, in terms of preparation on and off the ice, to be successful at this level. With or without Lidstrom, Smith would still make boneheaded plays...mostly because Smith is a bonehead. As I said, sticking him with someone who covers for him will make his mistakes less harmful, but it won't stop him from making them. That's what practice, experience, and playing in all situations is there for, and that's exactly why the Wings keep guys in the minors so long.

Yeah I understand that, I guess I'm not explaining my line of thought clearly. It sounds like this lady had a one time, very heavy, trauma to the head, and as a result of the injury abruptly died in her sleep a year later. Conversely, with hockey players (or boxers) it is the accumulation of years and years of less serious trauma that causes the degenerative conditions I spoke of before. You don't hear of hockey players dying in their sleep, they die of substance abuse, or suicide, because they're battling serious psychological impairments which are no doubt caused by the repeated hits to the head over the course of their careers. I'm not trying to suggest that they aren't both the result of head trauma, but simply that the severity of the hit was noticeably different in each case. But again, I'm not a doctor so maybe this lady died as a result of complications similar to those of recently deceased hockey players (and nobody is saying it). Also, maybe hockey players would abruptly die in their sleep too if they were getting hit with the same impact that a racecar driver hits a wall. Certainly, Scott Stevens tried.

Wait, are we using Cleary's clutch playoff performances against him now? Do the playoffs not count? Also I fail to see your point about ice time. Everybody is supposed to produce more with more ice time, if Cleary didn't then I'd say he's not worth his money. Given more ice time, he produces more. That's what he's supposed to do. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that Cleary is as skilled as Nyquist, he's not. But he produces consistently, and when paired with quality linemates he produces pretty well. He's definitely worth his money. However, I do have a problem with those that think Nyquist is somehow entitled to a top six spot based on his skill alone. He has by no means shown (so far) that he's capable of producing even at Hudler or Filppula levels given third line minutes, and yet many are clamoring for him to get promoted to the top six.

I'm just about as much against fighting in hockey as anybody on this forum, but that said I'm not sure that the slow accumulation of head trauma has the same effect as the type of brain trauma suffered in an auto accident. From what I understand it's more of a degenerative effect in the case of hockey, leading to depression, mood swings, substance abuse, etc. I don't think hockey players are likely to die in their sleep after a hard hit or particularly gruesome fight. Then again, I'm no doctor so I could be totally off base here.

You're right, and he produces way more than Nyquist for slightly more money, so I don't see what you're getting at?

Ugh, the sad news is that Babs will almost certainly change the lines...but in some silly way that is arguably worse than what we've got now. Can't wait to see Sammy/Bert/Cleary in the top six. It's coming boys and girls, mark my words.

Haha, you'd rather have Clarkson than Weiss eh? Let me know when Clarkson finally plays a game this season.

We should be eating this schedule up. It's only going to get harder.

yeesh! That one hurt.

You mean like two time all star Keith Yandle? The man who I've been pining for for two years, and who most LGWers say "isn't very good defensively", yet who (when compared to our d-core) looks like a superstar? Yeah I don't know where we'd find a guy like that.